Cuts to central funding for continued education and training of the AHP workforce ‘simply do not add up’, according to a new report published by the Council of Deans of Health.
The report highlights funding has been halved in 2016/17, and calls for the Department of Health to lead a discussion to address the disconnect between the funding decisions and national strategic priorities.
The report states: “Although these cuts will adversely affect universities, the most significant impact will be on the NHS workforce and the NHS’ ability to meet its own strategic objectives.
“Given the profound changes that are expected to nursing, midwifery and AHP roles as demand for services grows and patient needs and service configurations change, this transformation is at risk without investment in education and training.
“The Government’s strategic priorities and these funding decisions simply do not add up.”
Charlotte Beardmore, Director of Professional Policy at the SCoR, said, “To support the delivery of efficient and high quality health services investment in training the whole workforce is essential.
“It is challenging to understand how this decision will enable delivery of the government’s strategy to increase and develop the workforce, either in supporting learning in the workplace through investment in practice educators, or in expansion of roles to support higher level practice where there are gaps in the medical workforce.
“We call on the government to ensure sufficient CPD funds are available across the entire NHS workforce to help support delivery of high quality services for patients.”